Accolades: Voted one of Alley Insider's 100 most influential people in New York's tech scene for the last three consecutive years; co-founded Path 101, which was a Business Insider Startup 2009 finalist.

Why you should care: Perhaps more than anyone else at Ideas Week, O'Donnell speaks fluent entrepreneur. He's currently the principal for First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture capital fund that operates out of San Francisco, New York, and Philadelphia. First Round has helped launch over 200 companies, and takes a hands-on, nurturing approach, which makes sense, as O'Donnell has long been committed to helping people find success in their professional endeavors: Before working with First Round, he helped get job-search site indeed.com get off the ground.

We've already established that the economy is lousy and that the future looks somewhat bleak. But O'Donnell will roll into town and be a welcome ray of sunshine and can likely open your eyes on ways to find work, or create it for yourself. That's the only way things can start getting better for everyone, right?

When you can see him: TBA, but that information will likely be available right here.